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Saturday, May 22, 2010

She's Always a Woman to Me

The full version of Fyfe Dangerfield's "She's Always a Woman to Me" is quite lovely, but as Chris pointed out to me this morning, the lyrics don't always match the upstanding image of the woman in the John Lewis ad:

"She'll carelessly cut you, and laugh while you're bleeding."

"She is frequently kind and she's suddenly cruel."

"She steals like a thief."

Etc.

But I guess the song is meant to suggest that, while she's not perfect, he loves her anyway, flaws and all. Still--would you really still love someone who would slash you with a knife and then laugh about it? "Oh look, I stabbed you, ha ha ha." I don't think so.

Incidentally, the John Lewis department store on Oxford Street appears in the novel I'm currently reading. First it's destroyed during the London bombings of World War II and then later a character visits the store searching for a colleague (that both of these things are possible in that order is due to the fact that the book is about time-traveling historians, Connie Willis' Blackout--quite entertaining).

2 comments:

Chris B.
said...

This is a case study in the power of imagery. When I watch the John Lewis ad, I don't pay attention to the lyrics, save for the refrain. Together, the music and visuals produce something that's really quite lovely and sentimental. But when you only listen to the song, it's an altogether different experience.